


Pay It Forward

by Uwansumadamboi



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Cuddling & Snuggling, Delirium, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fever, Forehead Kisses, Forehead Touching, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Idiots in Love, M/M, Sickfic, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-11 09:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12932283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uwansumadamboi/pseuds/Uwansumadamboi
Summary: In which Rhys becomes incredibly sick and Jack takes extra good care of him.It all comes full circle when he ends up coming down with the exact same bug that Rhys had and Rhys has to return the favor and take care of Jack.





	1. In Which Jack Takes Care of A Sick Cupcake

**Author's Note:**

> Since it's that time of year again, I thought that a two-shot sickfic might be nice!

Of all the times that Rhys had to come down with something and become so bedridden that Jack couldn’t do anything other than stay at his side and care for the younger man, it had to be at the same time as when they were supposed to be closing a deal with Maliwan. Well… closing a deal was a bit on the generous side but that wasn’t what was important right now.

What was important was that Rhys was ill and it was up to Jack – being the handsome hero that he was, _of course_ – to care for him. Because, apparently, that sort of domestic crap was what boyfriends did for each other.

Naturally, Jack would be amazing at this. After all, he was _"Handsome Goddamn Jack"_ and he was _the absolute best_ at everything, so he could definitely handle taking care of his leggy, feverous abd downright delirious boyfriend.

Jack frowned as Rhys stirred, immediately attentive to the younger mans’ need. “Hi.” Rhys grumbled, his voice hoarse and barely audible to Jacks’ senses. “Thank y…” Rhys trailed off midway through the word and looked around in confusion, like he had completely forgotten his own thought process. “I…”

Jack chuckled meanly at that, despite all of his needs not to upset Rhys in his terrible state. “It’s okay Rhysie,” He said not unkindly, though the cruelly amused look in his eyes may have belied his intentions, “Take your time.”

Rhys, thankfully, didn’t seem to notice and took to snuggling against the older mans’ chest, “I don’t know,” he admitted quietly, “I forgot what I was thinkin’… nevermind.”

The young man was seemingly content to just nuzzle and curl up further against Jack, being so clingy towards him that Jack was hard pressed not to take photographs that he could use to give the lanky, adorable man hell in the future. “You’re warm…” Rhys mumbled, affirming Jacks’ thoughts in record time.

Jack was so delighted by the cute sight that he didn’t even bother to try and pry Rhys off of him, “Just look at you kitten,” he cooed as he cared his fingers through the younger mans’ auburn hair. “You’re a _real_ clingy little thing, huh?”

Rhys hummed vaguely in response, “Love you…” he said, so softly that if he hadn’t been practically burrowed near Jacks’ ear that the older man would have had no chance of hearing it. Lucky enough, he heard the soft utterance that Rhys let out loud and clear.

“That right?” he mumbled, before attempting to pull Rhys off of him so that he could check the younger mans’ temperature again – maybe get some more fluids in him or get him in a bath – but Rhys refused to budge and held on tighter to Jack.

“Rhysie…” Jack groaned out with a tone heavy with exasperation, “Get off of me, I gotta make sure that your temperatures alright.” Rhys shook his head again and moved in closer to the older man.

He didn’t want to let go, why couldn’t Jack just understand that? Jack was so warm and if he let the older man go he would start shaking and freezing again. He didn’t want that. He wanted to keep holding on. He couldn’t let go and he wouldn’t no matter how much Jack complained and tried to pry him off.

“No.” he said as Jack continued to gently pry Rhys arms off of him, “No, you can’t leave me, **no**.” he kept babbling as the two of them pushed and pulled with each other. Jack to get Rhys a reasonable distance off of him so that he could properly care for him and Rhys so that he could keep cuddling the older man.

Eventually Jack won out and he gently pushed the younger man back down on the bed, Rhys whined and pouted. He noticed that Rhys acted much more childishly now than he would have with a clear head, so for insurance Jack kept his arm braced against Rhys’ chest – effectively holding the younger man in place while he made sure that the younger man was alright.

“Now, hold still. I’ll get back to holding you in a minute.” Jack said and to his own surprise, Rhys nodded and hummed affirmatively. Once he was sure that Rhys wouldn’t start hanging on to him like a koala again he placed the back of his hand against Rhys’ forehead. He recoiled quickly and his brow furrowed with worry, “You’re really hot babe, and not in a good way.”

Rhys looked at him with an expression of blankness and Jack sighed, “You know, if I wasn’t so worried about you this would be real freaking cute.” he said and gently stroked his thumb against Rhys’ sallow cheek. “Shit, you’re really pale.” he noted as he got a chance to really look at Rhys’ face, this being the first time it hadn’t been burrowed against him all night.

Without giving Rhys any sort of warning, Jack scooped up the younger man in his arms. He didn’t mind either way because as far as he was concerned, he got exactly what he wanted from Jack and he preened at the physical affection that he was receiving as Jack carried him into the bathroom.

Rhys was so contented that he didn’t even notice Jack unbuttoning his pajama top and easing his sleep pants off of his hips and legs. He didn’t notice anything at all until his pajama pants had fallen on the floor with a quiet ‘thunk’.

He then looked at the man holding him with a puzzled expression, “W-what are you doing?” he asked stupidly, a blush painting his cheeks as he tried to form intelligent words to match his convoluted thoughts.

“Uh, I’m getting your dirty clothes off.” Jack said in a tone that made Rhys think that what he said was very, very stupid.

Rhys pressed on further, wanting his questions answered and not evaded. “But why? Why are you-”

“So that you can get in the bath that I’ve been runnin’ for you.” Jack said, in an almost incredulous tone. He flicked the younger man on the forehead rudely and said, “What did you think I’d be doing?”

“Oh.” Rhys realized out loud, looking owlishly at the older man. “I stink.” he frowned and looked down self consciously and worried his lower lip in his trepidation. “Sorry.”

Jack snorted and eased Rhys onto the cool material of the counter. He kissed Rhys on the forehead in the same spot where he had previously flicked it and murmured, “Sit tight for me.” to the younger man in a soft but commanding tone.

Rhys did as he was told, swinging his bare legs absentmindedly on the counter as he watched Jack prepare the water for him. He smiled fuzzily at the older man as he cared for his needs – if Rhys was lucid, he might have found the situation so bizarre that it was almost laughable.

The hilarity of the situation came from not so much that Jack cared about him and could be domestic when he wanted to be but more the fact that he seemed to have a well of patience that Rhys had never known of and he was drawing from it with reckless abandon to deal with how insane he was acting.

“Step in, Rhysie.” Jack directed him as he gestured towards the bath tub with his hand, the older mans voice snapped him out of his reverent thoughts. He stepped off of the counter shakily, with worry that he might trip over the air and fall flat on his face with every single step he made towards the older man.

He made baby steps as he moved until he was close enough to cling to the older man, he felt as though if he let go of Jack that he would fall over and hurt himself because as far as he was concerned Jack would be the only one able to keep him on balance.

However, Jack didn’t see it that way at all and he couldn’t understand at all why in the hell Rhys couldn’t just let him go for the moment,

It might have even worked, if Rhys hadn’t been so out of it that he panicked and grabbed on tight to Jack, pulling the older man in the water with him.

The older man groaned out loud as he partially sunk in the water, more out of surprise than anything else. “ **SON OF A** -” he yelled and gave Rhys a veritable look of murder that diminished into nothing the minute that he saw the pathetic and heartbroken expression on the young mans face.

“I, I didn’t…” Rhys was babbling and emotional and Jack knew that he couldn’t even be mad at his stupidly cute boyfriend when he looked at him like that. “I didn’t mean…” he looked down at his knees, feeling stupid all of the sudden.

“You could have just told me if you wanted me in here with me.” he joked, more to distract himself from his own frustration than anything else, before he stood up and stepped out of the tub.

Seeing not much other option, Jack pulled off all of his wet clothing and threw it in the pile where all of Rhys’ dirtied clothes lay before he eased himself down into the tub behind the younger man, manhandling Rhys a bit so that they were both more comfortable. “You’re lucky that I like you so much or else I would have thrown you out of an airlock for all this crap.” Jack grumbled to himself as he soothed his hand down the younger mans back in a soothing manner.

Rhys leaned back, none the wiser to his boyfriends grumblings. He was more than satisfied to just let himself be cared for by the older man and despite how dizzy and foggy that he felt, the feelings of affection that he had overwhelmed his feelings of distress that he had from being so sick.

He hadn’t noticed – and on that note, he wasn’t able to appreciate – that Jack had been helping him wash up because as far as he was concerned, Rhys’ IQ had gone down about eighty points and he was too stupid like this to do much for himself. So Jack manhandled and moved him every which way, washing his hair and body while touching Rhys in the most nonsexual way possible.

Which was… a really weird thing for Jack to do, he hadn't done something like this for anyone since... well, in any case he managed it alright – Rhys wasn’t complaining, in fact the kid seemed to be reveling in all of the attention and care he was receiving.

It wasn’t much longer until Jack had decided that the two of them were clean enough – and not to mention that the water was getting more lukewarm than would be comfortable for either of them.

He got himself out of the tub, stepping out of the porcelain enclosure carefully, he haphazardly dried himself off and ran into the bedroom to put on some clothes before he turned his attention back to Rhys. It was pure dumb luck that Rhys didn’t notice his momentary absence and end up hurting himself trying to clamber after him.

Jack pulled Rhys out right after him and braced his hands against the sides of Rhys’ hips, he playfully ran his fingertips against the sensitive flesh and laughed a little as the younger man squirmed in his grasp and giggled ticklishly. He let Rhys off after just a moment of making the annoyingly cute man suffer – he knew that he couldn’t deny himself a bit of petty revenge against his temporarily empty-headed boyfriend.

In a somewhat sudden motion Jack leaned into to press a chaste kiss to Rhys’ forehead, “You feel a little cooler now, Rhysie.” he commented as he moved away from Rhys, looking the younger man in the eyes with a relieved look in his eyes that Rhys seemed to be getting at least slightly better and less sickly than he had been just hours earlier.

The younger man lay his head against Jacks’ shoulder and whimpered pathetically as he clung desperately once more to the older man. Truthfully, Rhys didn’t feel much better, at least not to himself. He still felt foggy, dizzy and like everything going on around him was just wrong in some way. He frowned and looked around the room, he almost felt like Jack was there in front of him as well as in a whole other universe.

“...hys, Rhys, _**RHYS**_.” it was only on the third utterance of his name had Rhys processed the words and was able to respond to to Jacks’ calls.

“Hm?” Rhys responded stupidly, looking at Jack with an owlish expression. “Did you say something?”

“I said, I think we should get some food in you.” Jack told him in a cutesy, condescending sort of tone and said every word with deliberate slowness. He was more than a little frustrated with this whole situation and he made it clear in his tone. “Something _light_ , alright?” he said as he helped Rhys into a plush robe.

Rhys snuggled himself up in the soft fabric of the robe as Jack pulled him in to wrapped his arm around his sickly boyfriends waist as he led him into the kitchen for a little TLC.

* * *

After the two of them had finished eating whatever they could – for Rhys, it was less than he should have eaten but Jack supposed it really couldn’t be helped if the younger man couldn’t stomach anything more than he had eaten – the two of them had gotten into bed.

Jack put something on on Netflix – something that was watchable but certainly not memorable or really even interesting enough for him to pay all that much attention to – and lay back. He wasn’t at all surprised, given all of the hyper clingy behavior that Rhys had exhibited in just the past two hours alone, when Rhys crawled over to the older man and sidled himself on top of him. The younger man had positioned himself with his head on Jacks’ chest and his arms half of the way wrapped around the Hyperion presidents’ shoulders.

Jack let out a puff of air as he looked downwards at Rhys, the young man was looking halfway decent for the first time all night. If the two of them were lucky he might even be healthy enough to return to work by the end of the week, so long as Jack kept his eye on him and he was hyper-vigilant about it.

He smiled fondly at the younger man and brushed his hair out of his face gently, “Jesus, kiddo.” he grumbled, “What would you do if you didn’t have me here to take care of you? Curl up and die? Probably.”

Rhys stirred slightly in response to Jacks’ exhausted ramblings, he whimpered and opened his eyes ever so slightly before he buried himself once again in the older mans’ lap and placed his palms flat on Jacks’ chest and lay his head against his splayed out hands.

Jack laughed softly at the overly cutesy display, it reminded him of a cat laying themselves out flat on your chest and that was adorable and oddly fitting for someone like Rhys.

The Hyperion CEO yawned and made a mental note to call up Meg for more supplies, maybe have Rhys’ nerdy little friend deliver them to his penthouse – probably the only option, considering the fact that Vaughn was one of the few people who even knew where Jack lived and had been granted incredibly limited access to his home for Rhys’ sake.

It had been one helluva night for the both of them and it seemed to Jack that taking care of Rhys was only a slightly less hellish situation than being as sick as the younger man.

The clothes that he was wearing were probably ruined, his hair was still damp from being forcibly dragged into a bath tub and he made Rhys cry a few times for reasons that he would never be able to understand.

 _‘Fun stuff’_ he thought, with a wry grin forming on his face, _‘but this asshole better not have gotten me sick.’_


	2. In Which The Cupcake Pays Him Back

Of course, the week after Rhys had finally been well enough to return to work – Jack had come down with the exact same thing that he had had – Rhys wasn’t surprised, at least not as much as Jack had been. Jack wasn’t the type of person who really ever got sick, that much was true, but he had been in direct contact with someone who was ill enough for seven people.

If he had been lucid enough to tell the difference between up and down, he may have told Jack about how likely he was to get the older man sick. He probably would have demanded that Jack just bring an actual medical professional in, instead of letting the older man endanger his own health.

When Rhys had been ill, he had been a clingy and delirious mess that posed emotional warfare on pretty much all of Jacks’ senses, but when Jack had – inevitably – come down from the same illness that Rhys had just gotten rid of, he seemed to be his own kind of insufferable monster.

Rhys understood this when he had taken it upon himself to care for his boyfriend in the exact same capacity as he had been cared for… because that’s what boyfriends – boyfriends that maybe even love each other, even if one of them said it so rarely – did for one another. Either way, he was always happy to help and ready to be on the front lines when it came to someone like Handsome Jack.

Jacks’ own issues with being ill, that seemingly just came with the package with the older man, stemmed from his inability to accept the fact that there was anything wrong with him. It seemed to Rhys that as far as Jack was concerned, he didn’t need to recuperate or eat chicken soup, nope, he was Handsome Goddamn Jack. Heroes don’t get sick. As well as a bunch of other ham-fisted excuses that he levied at Rhys to – try to – justify not properly caring for himself while he was ill.

Well, Rhys wouldn’t be having any of that, he was not going to drag this whole thing out because his boyfriend was a stubborn asshole that refused to take care of himself. So Rhys had gotten a hold of Jacks’ most trusted doppelganger and told him to cover all of Jacks’ responsibilities at Hyperion for the next two weeks and to only call them if it was absolutely necessary.

He was just glad that Timothy seemed to be more than a little intimidated by Rhys – for whatever reason, for all he knew Jack told horror stories about Rhys to his doppelgangers – and listened to him, otherwise Jack would be carrying on meetings in between impromptu sessions of hacking his lungs up. Because that would… not be good for Hyperions’ image. More like terrible. Awful. Stocks plummeting and Helios burning to the ground.

Rhys didn’t think that he was being dramatic on that point, because if Jack decided to work through this flu – like an idiot – than he would crash Helios himself with Jack and everyone that they knew in it. Okay, so maybe that was just a tiny bit dramatic. He turned around in a half circle and directed  
himself to the kitchen to make his boyfriend some flu approved dinner.

Though, as he rooted through the contents of their surprisingly bare kitchen Rhys realized that they may have run through all of the, “Flu Appropriate” foods and he had to either call Vaughn – at this hour it was unlikely that his best friend would be awake to even know that he called – or make a run down to the Hub of Heroism and get everything himself.

Hesitantly, Rhys padded into the bedroom and moved quietly over to where Jack lay dead asleep from practically overdosing himself on cold medicines trying to “power through” the fever.  
Rhys smiled fondly, that was definitely in character for someone like Jack and he had to take a moment to thank whatever deity was listening for knocking his boyfriend out.

* * *

Rhys returned with bags heaving in his arms, to the groggy and run down appearance of his boyfriend at their kitchen table drinking from a bottle of over expensive liquor.

“Morning Sunshine.” He commented with a wry grin forming on his face – Jack looked worse for wear, but he couldn’t help but think that the older man deserved it for not listening to him and dismissing his warnings of what would happen if he tried to over-medicate himself. “Can I just say that you look absolutely amazing!” he added, “Like a trillion bucks. I mean it.”

“Ha ha, freaking hilarious Rhys.” Jack responded dryly, “I feel like shit.” He added in a flippant tone, “I don’t think that I’ve ever felt worse in my life.” he added, “How do you deal with this shit?”

Rhys smirked at that, “You know… I’m pretty sure that at least half of how shitty you feel is probably a hangover.” he informed the older man as he gently pried the bottle from Jacks’ weak but persistently gripping fingers. “You really shouldn’t have downed all those meds. Honestly, I’m surprised doing that didn’t just make you sicker.”

“Give it time.” The older man responded in a tone that made Rhys snicker almost automatically, the younger man took to covering his mouth to muffle out the noises and stop Jack from being alerted to his amusement. Despite all of Rhys’ best efforts, Jack noticed the younger mans’ soft giggling but he was much too tired to properly respond to them. So he let it be. For now.

“Anyways, I’m gonna make some chicken soup.” Rhys declared as he set all of the ingredients out of the paper grocery bags. Jack grumbled something about how that was what sick people ate and Rhys narrowed his eyes at him. “You are sick.” he said in a flippant yet almost disbelieving tone. “And if you’re going to get better anytime soon then you are gonna need rest and fluids and… no more cough syrup.”

Jack gave Rhys a flat sort of look, like he was going to say something mean and nasty to the younger man but thought better of it, before he answered him with a deadpanned, “Sure.” before he stood up and made a beeline for their bedroom. “I’m gonna go take a shower, alright?”

“Hm? Oh, sure.” Rhys answered in an absent minded tone. “Are you sure that you’ll be al...” The younger man trailed off as he realized that Jack was already gone. “…Right?” he added in a dismal tone, “Oh, he’ll be fine. Probably.” he dismissed his own worries quickly.

He was definitely thankful that Jack wasn’t the type of person that – like him, for example – got incredibly delirious when they had a fever. Jack was clear headed, if a little irritable and more than a little tired, and that was something like a godsend to the younger man.

While he cooked, Rhys couldn’t help but turn his attentions towards the bedroom in worry that Jack might have overdone himself and possibly hurt himself in the process. The thought of that made him panic, if Jack was rendered unconscious in the shower Rhys might not even be able to drag him out. He wasn’t strong enough for that sort of thing and he would probably have to call up Vaughn and Yvette to help lug his boyfriend out.

He really hoped that it didn’t come to that, he wouldn’t want to traumatize his friends or end up owing Yvette free lunches for the rest of his sorry life.

Just as Rhys’ wonderings had taken a turn into “Downward spiral of worry and anxiety” Jack had reappeared – not dead, or unconscious like he kept fretting that the older man would be but actually looking slightly better than he had before. He was only half-dressed, Rhys noticed and quickly guessed that his skin might be a little heated from the steaming water and that Jack didn’t want to overheat.

“Got somethin’ to say, Rhysie?” Jack quipped, drawing Rhys’ attention back to the present. “Cause, uh, my eyes are up here.” he added, pointing two of his fingers at his own hetero-chromatic eyes in a ‘v’ formation.

Rhys balked at that and it took him a moment to compose himself. He hated that Jack seemed to always know exactly what to say to catch him off guard. “A-a-any way! Dinner’s ready… I made chicken soup, for… obvious reasons.” he babbled.

Jack sat down at their table and fixed Rhys with an amused sort of look, “I bet you were thinking about how lucky it is that I don’t get crazy when I’m sick like you do.”

“Yeah, sorry about all… that.” Rhys gestured vaguely to enunciate his point. “I don’t even want to think about any of the stupid crap I probably did. I don’t remember much.”

Jack snorted, “You dragged me into the bath tub.” he reminded the younger man, “I’ve got no clue what the hell was going through your head but you nearly drowned me.”

“Don’t be dramatic.” Rhys retorted in a dismissive tone, “You’ve carried me all the way across Helios and you’re trying to tell me that I would have been able to overpower you and drown you in the bath tub. I couldn’t even hold a glass of water, I dropped it and cut myself cause it was too heavy.” he argued, “I remember that much.”

“Whatever.” Jack grumbled, “Can you serve me some of that soup? It actually smells pretty good.”

“Wow, thanks so much for the compliment. It really felt genuine.” Rhys deadpanned as he served the older man a bowl of the chicken soup. He handed it over and added, “Thank you. For taking care of me, you didn’t have to do that and I really appreciate it.”

“You better be worth it.” The older man quipped before he took to sluggishly eating the soup. “I better get a blowjob a day whenever this is all over.”

“Mm, play your cards right and I’ll give you two.” The younger man teased back, holding two of his fingers up to emphasize his statement. “But only if you don’t die from this first.”

“I’m not gonna-” Jack cut himself off as he started coughing, Rhys jumped back a bit in partial surprise in response to it. He furrowed his brows with concern and shifted from foot to foot as he watched Jacks’ coughing fit with a resigned sort of helplessness. “I’m not gonna die, I’ll be… perfectly freaking fine.”

Rhys looked at him with a suspicious look on his face, “You’re sure about that?” he asked. He knew that he sounded like a broken record, but he couldn’t help it. He was too worried about Jack not to fret over him, because he knew how much strain that the older man had been putting himself through as he kept trying to dissociate from being ill.

Jack stood up and Rhys looked at the older man to see the intense look of aggravation on his face. “I’m going to work on some stuff.” he said, in a tone that told Rhys there was nothing that he could do about it. “I’ll be doing it all from my tablet so, don’t worry.”

Rhys nodded nervously and chose not to say anything because he didn’t want to push the older man too much and have Jack snapping at him in frustration. Jack had always – at least in the time that he knew the older man personally – had trouble appearing weak or vulnerable and he was having a helluva time trying to allow someone like Rhys to take care of him.

He decided to leave Jack alone for a bit as he figured that the older man needed just a little bit more space. Rhys worried his lower lip and put forth effort to busy himself for at least the next few hours…for both his and Jacks’ sanity.

* * *

After a good amount of time had passed – though it felt like it was much longer to Rhys as he was worrying himself half to death over Jacks’ health – Rhys had decided to check on Jack and check to see if the older man needed anything from him.

Jack had been… quiet since practically the moment that he had entered their bedroom. That was disconcerting for Rhys – Jack was loud and gregarious, he wouldn’t ever be considered the type to have quiet moments of contemplation.

When he was coding, the older man seemed to monologue all of his out loud and Rhys had expected – maybe even hoped a little just because it was nice to be needed – that Jack would have called for him a couple of time but… he hadn’t heard a peep from the older man. It was disconcerting, worrisome and altogether anxiety wrenching for him.

Rhys padded into the bedroom softly and flicked on the light switch. “Hey, I was wondering if you wanted any…” he trailed off as he noticed his boyfriend laying flat and star fished out on his stomach, he blinked in surprise at the peaceful sight he made. “Ha! Never… mind.” he mumbled to himself.

Rhys hadn’t expected Jack to go into the room and pass out and it made him smirk a little bit at the thought, he figured that Jack had gone and worn himself out so much that his body just shut down and forced him to get some rest.

He gently pried the table from underneath the older man and in the process of doing so ended up being grabbed by a sleeping Jack and pulled into the older mans’ arms. He pouted and tried to wriggle himself away to disappointing results, Jack seemed to just hold him even tighter.

Eventually Rhys ended up tiring himself out and he, seeing no way out of this situation, accepted his fate and closed his eyes with the hope that by the time he woke up he’d be able to slither himself away from his sickly boyfriend.

In any case, Rhys hoped that Jack would feel a little better in the morning – he might end up withered and gray by the end of the week if the older mans’ health was still in decline. Or even worse! End up sick again.


End file.
